Liberty. It’s a simple idea, but it’s also the linchpin of a complex system of values and practices: justice, prosperity, responsibility, toleration, cooperation, and peace. Many people believe that liberty is the core political value of modern civilization itself, the one that gives substance and form to all the other values of social life. They’re called libertarians.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

By Naively Putting Tax Hikes on the Table, Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham Join the Charlie Brown Club

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, said Friday that
he could back a broad deficit plan that increased taxes, a stance that
puts him at odds with other prominent Republicans. Bush told a House
panel he could get behind a plan that combined 10 dollars in spending
cuts for every dollar of new revenue… “The problem is the 10 never
materializes,” [Congressman Paul] Ryan said after Bush said he could
support a revenue-increasing deficit deal. Norquist also has criticized
deficit deals crafted in 1982 and 1990 – the latter agreed to by
then-President George H.W. Bush, Jeb’s father – for failing to deliver
on the spending side.

Kudos to Paul Ryan for making the obvious point about make-believe
spending cuts. And Grover is correct about the failure of previous
budget deals.
Indeed, I cited a New York Times column that inadvertently revealed that the only budget deal that worked was the 1997 pact that cut taxes rather than raised them.
Jeb Bush isn’t the only apostate. Here’s what Senator Graham had to say.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday he believed
Republicans should consider eliminating loopholes in the tax code even
if they aren’t replaced by additional tax cuts, a move that would break
with an anti-tax pledge many GOP lawmakers have signed with activist
Grover Norquist. “When you eliminate a deduction, it’s OK with me to use
some of that money to get us out of debt. That’s where I disagree with
the pledge,” Graham told ABC News. …”I’m willing to move my party, or
try to, on the tax issue. I need someone on the Democratic side being
willing to move their party on structural changes to entitlements.”
Graham said, for instance, he would support a plan that included $4 in
spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. During a Republican debate
last August, all eight Republican candidates in attendance said they
would reject a proposal to trade $10 in spending cuts for even $1 in tax
increases.

In some sense, Senator Graham’s comments are reasonable. With real
spending cuts and less-damaging forms of tax hikes, an acceptable deal
is possible. But only in Fantasia, not in Washington.
In the real world, all that Senator Graham has done is to move the debate slightly to the left.I’ve noted that tax increases are political poison for the Republican Party, but I don’t lose sleep worrying about the GOP.
But I do have nightmares about government getting even bigger, and that’s why I don’t want tax increases on the table. I don’t even want them in the room. Or the house. Or the neighborhood.
That’s why Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham are the newest winners of the Charlie Brown Award. They’ve put blood in the water. I wonder if they’ll act surprised when hungry sharks show up looking for a meal?